Bucks County
Bucks County is one of the original three counties of Pennsylvania established by William Penn, founder and proprietor of Pennsylvania. History The government of England owed Sir William Penn, admiral of the British navy a large amount of money. In 1680, William Penn, the admiral's heir petitioned Charles II, to suggest that the debt be paid by a land patent west of the Delaware River, north of Maryland. This was resisted by the Duke of York, who held a charter for New York and New Netherlands and Lord Baltimore who held the Maryland charter. Both claimed parts of this proposed patent. The patent was signed by Charles II. The patent granted the lands west of the Delaware from the 40th to the 43rd degrees latitude, west 5 degrees of longitude from the Delaware. The Charter also inluded the three counties of what is now the state of Delaware (Newcastle, Kent, Sussex), which then were referred to as "the territories". This was accomplished with two deeds of foeffment, dated 24 August 1682. Penn set sail on the Welcome, Robert Greenway, commanding, landing at Newcastle, Delaware on 27 October 1682. The next day, he read the new charter and explained that he was their new proprietor. Soon, people clamored to purchase land in the new province, including Thomas Bracey, Edward Brooks, James Claypoole, Philip Forde, Nicholas Moore, Edward Pierce, Willam Sharloe, John Simcock. Edward Brooks formed formed a company called The Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania which purchased twenty thousand acres in trust. Fifty years later, the company fell on financial hardship. Penn entered into a contract with early land buyers published as "Certain Conditions and Concessions, Agreed upon by William Penn, Proprietary and Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, and those Adventurers and Purchasers in the Same Province, the 11th of July, 1681. In the contract were rules of settlement, just and friendly treatment of the Indians, and keeping the peace as to the customs, usages and laws of England, and rules as purchasers. One such rule was "That in clearing the ground, care be taken to leave one acre of trees for every five acres cleared". Ignoring the rules were to result in stiff penalties. So many lot of lands were sold in 1681 that two ships from London and one from Bristol sailed to the province that year. Passengers included Joseph Kirkbride, John Otter, Nathaniel Allen and several of Penn's servants. William Markham, cousin of Penn also arrived. Penn made him Deputy Governor charging him with including conferring with the Indians respecting their lands and to seek a site near the Delaware Falls upon which to built a manor for Penn. 1682 saw the arrival of some twenty ships setting the scene for a great immigration into the new province. Soon after Penn arrived, he traveled to Upland (now Chester), the to the site of the future Philadelphia, and likely to the future site of Pennsbury Manor. Penn personally named Philadelphia and, in consultation with Surveyor General Thomas Holme, likely named Bucks County (after Buckinghamshire, England). Sometime late in the year 1682, Penn, with the consent of the first Provincial Council of 10 March 1683, separated the three lower counties into the Province of Delaware, thereby separating it from Pennsylvania. The three Pennsylvania counties were Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia. The Provincial Council and the Assembly were represented by twelve landowners from each county, 9 for the Council, 3 for the Assembly, 72 in all. Council members were Willam Biles, Edward Cantwell, William Clayton, Lacy Cock, William Haig, James Harrison, John Hillyard, Thomas Holme, William Markham, John Moll, John Richardson, John Simcock, Christopher Taylor, Francis Whitewell, Ralph Withers. Members of the Assembly from Bucks County were James Boyden, John Clowes, Samuel Darke, Thomas Fitzwater, Robert Hall, Robert Lucas, Nicholas Walne, John Wood, William Yardley. The first courts were established in the county on 31 March 1683. Geography Bucks County is bounded on the northeast and southeast by the Delaware River, southwest by Philadelphia and Montgomery County, and on the north by Lehigh and Northampton Counties. See also wikipedia:Bucks County, Pennsylvania Category:Index Category:Place Names